What is the fate of dead wood and fallen leaves? A large fraction of a forest’s carbon is stored in these materials at any given time. But this dead material does not continually accrete – it is transformed into other forms by decomposers, and made available to other organisms. Large logs may last for only…

Understanding a rainforest by only walking through it is like visiting a new city but never leaving the tourist spots. You have only seen it from one perspective, when many others are available. The canopy of a forest can be an entirely different world. But how to get up to it, when the tallest trees…

Sunday morning, and we’re off to work. We put on our rubber boots and rain gear, gather equipment for the day, and walk a short twenty meters to the edge of the forest. From here, it is a half kilometer hike through the mud and roots to our first field site. To reach it, we…

Raining – but where? One of the surprising features of small islands and montane environments is the strong variability of climate with elevation. Here, you see a view from approximately 500 m elevation above sea level – the plain is sunny and clear, but the higher-elevation forest is shrouded in clouds. Here is another view,…